Countdown for Ruth McDowell Class!

Well, many of my chores are done! I spent some time yesterday marbling with what is left of the fabric I had alum-ed and am taking a break so I can get fully ready for the class with Ruth McDowell starting this Wednesday. Much of the fabric I marbled was specifically for one of the pieces I might be working on! Today was getting my images copied to paper (from the page protectors where I had traced them). Then I headed over to Staples (thanks Jeanne) and had them blown up to 3 foot by 4 foot. Pat is definitely having an influence as that still seems too small! I bought some 3 foot wide paper as well so we shall see what happens. I am feeling ready for 4 foot by 6 foot but am not sure the world is ready for Birds of Paradise (the flower) that big! My pelicans aren't even life-sized yet though so there is room there for enlargement!

I enlarged 6 pictures! Two are different versions of pelicans, one is a great blue heron, one is the Birds of Paradise, one is a trillium and one is lilies. As they require rather different palettes of fabric, I do have to make up my mind soon! I think the four following pictures are the frontrunners right now.

This is one of my favorite pelican pictures from last winter.
This is the first quilt I did with the Bird of Paradise drawing. It was from two pictures I took out in California. I still have the original of one of them so can add more detail. This one is only about 18 inches by 24 and the whole thing is appliqued. I have already cropped the image as well so there is more flowers and less background. I am learning a bit about composition! I have always wanted to do this picture again using the Ruth McDowell piecing techniques as I really prefer piecing. My background will be a lot more interesting also!!


This is my favorite Great Blue Heron picture. I have several other detailed pictures of this bird as well. He came and posed for me quite often.

This is my absolute favorite Pelican picture although I like the background of the other one a bit better.